{"id":95593,"date":"2016-06-02T19:17:40","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T02:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=95593"},"modified":"2016-06-02T19:17:40","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T02:17:40","slug":"the-proper-office-of-satire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html","title":{"rendered":"The proper office of satire…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2026is to mock the failings of the powerful and exalt their victims. As Bp. Barron has noted, one of the functions of a crucifix, particularly coupled with the words \u201cAve\u201d directed to the Blessed Virgin was to mock not only the power of Rome (\u201cHail Caesar\u201d was the greeting of imperial Rome that rang daily in the ears of those under its bootheel), but to mock the power of the ultimate King of Death, Satan. <\/a>And so Mary herself declares, in a surprisingly martial tone, \u201cHe has cast down the mighty in their arrogance and lifted up the lowly\u201d and Paul tells us that by his cross Christ \u201cdisarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him\u201d (Col 2:15).<\/p>\n

So there has always been a place in the Christian tradition for the humorist who takes the powerful down a peg and lifts up those whose faces are ground by the arrogant.<\/p>\n

But in the new era of Trump\u2019s Amerikka, satire and humor is being corrupted like so much else and mortal sin is, as ever, throwing over itself the cloak of \u201ccourage<\/a>\u201d in order to invert the scale of values. New voices are being heard who label compassion for those weaker than themselves \u201cpolitical correctness\u201d and then use their power to direct mockery, not at the arrogant, but at the poor, the defenseless, the disabled.<\/p>\n

Exhibit A: the pathetic Gary Owen, who earns his bread from his audience of bullies by making fun of \u201cretards\u201d.<\/a> As all grave sinners do, Owen cloaks his bullying cruelty under the cover of \u201ccourage\u201d and, as Trump\u2019s base (in every sense of that word)\u00a0loves to do, swaggers that he isn\u2019t afraid of his victims (much as the gang rapist is not afraid of the woman he and his pals have beaten into unconsciousness).<\/p>\n

His routine ranges from being insulting to people with intellectual disabilities to being dangerous in that it recalls practices ranging from institutionalization to infanticide. He mocks their speech, mocks their love, mocks their sexuality, mocks them as people and worst of all, does so without any qualms or hesitation. He can pick on his cousin. Why? According to him: because she\u2019s \u201cretarded.\u201d Apparently, she isn\u2019t worthy of even the most basic dignity. To him.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Showtime has awarded this wretched bottom feeder with a TV special, because in Trump\u2019s Amerikkka, an audience for this is now feeling comfortable enough to emerge from under the rocks and crawl out into the daylight to flex the swastikas tattooed on their\u00a0fishbelly white, skinny little arms.<\/p>\n

Of course, such \u201ccourage\u201d melts like snow in the face of real courage, such as that of Jo Cunningham<\/a>, another fierce Jewish Catholic mom like Our Lady, who has no problem casting down the mighty in their arrogance and lifting up the lowly. \u00a0Meet her son Sam.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

They are going to confront Owen to his face and dare him to call Sam a \u201cretard\u201d in front of his audience of mouthbreathers. \u00a0That\u2019s real courage. \u00a0Pray for them as they bear authentic Christian witness to the dignity of all human life in the face of a now thoroughly pagan postmodernism that is well on the way to gladiatorial games in the arena. \u00a0And pray for the conversion of this miserable human being and every pathetic sinner who think this filth is funny. \u00a0Christ died even for such as them\u2013especially for such as them.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026is to mock the failings of the powerful and exalt their victims. As Bp. Barron has noted, one of the functions of a crucifix, particularly coupled with the words \u201cAve\u201d directed to the Blessed Virgin was to mock not only the power of Rome (\u201cHail Caesar\u201d was the greeting of imperial Rome that rang daily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[684],"class_list":["post-95593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-triumph-of-the-cross"],"yoast_head":"\nThe proper office of satire...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"...is to mock the failings of the powerful and exalt their victims. As Bp. Barron has noted, one of the functions of a crucifix, particularly coupled with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The proper office of satire...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"...is to mock the failings of the powerful and exalt their victims. As Bp. Barron has noted, one of the functions of a crucifix, particularly coupled with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-03T02:17:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/13315793_1373588089334781_6538049204625257182_n.jpg?oh=d8afece612dcb13d957d0fe6b2d33c90&oe=57C14962\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html\",\"name\":\"The proper office of satire...\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-03T02:17:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-03T02:17:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"...is to mock the failings of the powerful and exalt their victims. As Bp. Barron has noted, one of the functions of a crucifix, particularly coupled with\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The proper office of satire…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The proper office of satire...","description":"...is to mock the failings of the powerful and exalt their victims. As Bp. Barron has noted, one of the functions of a crucifix, particularly coupled with","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The proper office of satire...","og_description":"...is to mock the failings of the powerful and exalt their victims. As Bp. Barron has noted, one of the functions of a crucifix, particularly coupled with","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2016-06-03T02:17:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net\/v\/t1.0-9\/13315793_1373588089334781_6538049204625257182_n.jpg?oh=d8afece612dcb13d957d0fe6b2d33c90&oe=57C14962"}],"author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html","name":"The proper office of satire...","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-06-03T02:17:40+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-03T02:17:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"...is to mock the failings of the powerful and exalt their victims. As Bp. Barron has noted, one of the functions of a crucifix, particularly coupled with","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/06\/the-proper-office-of-satire.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The proper office of satire…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}